Basildon Hospital Trust have failed miserably to separate clinical from domestic-type refuse resulting in what is apparently widespread contamination of a Veolia site.

Now, hospital porters who volunteered for the “horrendous” job of rifling through rubbish to look for used syringes and swabs say Trust bosses have let them down by not paying them on time. Around ten porters from the hospital volunteered to do night shifts at the Veolia Environmental Services waste depot on Burnt Mills Industrial estate, Basildon, to scour refuse contaminated by clinical wastes incorrectly disposed of by nurses and doctors.

The hospital has faced a growing problem of clinical waste going into the general waste stream, but so far we have no word of either the Environment Agency or HSE addressing these breaches. Perhaps they are still sitting on their hands?

In September, Veolia banned any waste from the hospital waste going to landfill and the porters were rummaging through contaminated waste at the depot. One of the porters, who refused to be named after they were banned from speaking to the press, said: “We volunteered for this. OK it meant overtime, but we are really helping the hospital out and it is horrendous work.”

“We have all the gloves and special clothing, but I have put my hand in excrement and clots of blood.

“It is just an insult. We were supposed to get £210 for three shifts before tax, but they have only paid us 60 per cent. Some of us were relying on that money and everyone is very annoyed that they volunteered but got this treatment.”

A hospital spokeswoman said: “The trust can confirm that a clerical error has caused a delay to the additional payments that porters are receiving for working at the Veolia waste site.

“The trust appreciates the additional work that the porters are carrying out at the waste processing site and regrets that a clerical error has delayed a proportion of their additional payments.”

There are serious errors in waste management in general and waste stream separation. The inclusion of sharps with soft clinical wastes in this contaminated waste suggests downstream co-mixing of clinical and domestic wastes rather than incorrect source segregation by, as presumed by the porters, doctors and nurses. In fact, it may even have been the porters mixing bags and bins collected from the wards, or it might have occurred even further downstream in which case the error might sit at Veolia’s feet.

Whatever the circumstances, this represents a clear breach in waste management regulations and EA should be imposing restrictions to ensure no repeat.  Depending on severity – it is now placing individuals at significant risk of infection and that health & safety breach may be actionable. HSE might now step in, with FFI charges imposed on the Trust. EA should also concern itself with the actual or potential environmental impact of what is now, and might previously have been, inappropriate landfill disposal of clinical wastes.

Altogether, a bad situation that the Trust has now made much worse.

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